by As Russ Pearce, Rob Vischer and Bob Cochran have discussed elsewhere on this blog, some evangelicals and conservative Protestants are now wringing their hands over the impending Protestant-free Supreme Court. Their points (and the comments) are thoughtful and illuminating, but miss something more important that is also linked to the recently decided Salazar v. Buono.
Read the full postMonthly Archive for May, 2010
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by As Rob Vischer reports below, Christianity Today suggests that evangelicals might not be able to relate to Elena Kagan. Evangelicals Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, for whom she worked, seem to think otherwise.
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by Russ has raised some interesting questions about identity and the Supreme Court. In keeping with the theme, while Christianity Today (the leading magazine for mainstream evangelical Christians) usually avoids overt partisanship or hyperbole, I was struck by this article about Elena Kagan’s nomination:
“There is almost nothing with which American evangelicals can identify in either Kagan’s personal or professional life, and the same is likely to be true of her legal philosophy as it emerges. Fortunately for evangelicals, in replacing liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, Kagan would not markedly alter the balance of power on the court. At the same time, unfortunately for evangelicals, that balance of power will leave them in the position of highly engaged outsiders looking in.”
Let’s put to the side the very provocative notion that evangelicals should expect to find almost nothing to identify with about Elena Kagan’s personal life, and focus on the professional. On the implications of a Justice Kagan, I find this sort of analysis frustrating because, by presuming a total disconnect between an evangelical worldview and Upper West Side / Ivy League worldview, it essentializes two enormously diverse and overlapping groups of people, implicitly defines them in part by the rejection of the other, and effectively widens the existing disconnect in the process.
Read the full postKathleen Parker, a moderate and thoughtful conservative, has a column in the Washington Post arguing that Elena “Kagan is miles away from mainstream America.” The focus of her article is on how Kagan would be the fourth Justice to hail from New York City (as a Brooklyn resident myself, I want to note that she’s obviously missed the memo about how the framers intended the Supreme Court membership to reflect the famous New Yorker map of the United States).
Read the full postReading the Kagan Tea Leaves: Maybe She’s Not a Mainstream Liberal on a Few Religious Issues
by russellpearce
Two recent news stories offer “tea leaves” that suggest Elena Kagan may not be a mainstream liberal on at least two issues related to religion. First, the New York Times reports that in 1997 she advised President Clinton to sign legislation banning late-term abortions. While you could say that she made that argument on pragmatic [...]
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by I am thrilled to contribute the occasional musing to this blog, which so far has been the subject of some very productive conversations. I thought it would be useful to start with a lament.
There’s a whole lot of consensus in the law and religion field these days, at least among those in the American legal academy who focus on these matters. I know that statement risks overstatement, but I think it is largely true. Steve Smith once wrote a fine article about what he called the “de facto disestablishment.” Well, it seems to me that these days we’re in a kind of de facto Era of Good Feelings (maybe that should be Era of God Feelings) in law and religion. Many of us who write in this field, whatever our personal beliefs, do so from a position of high regard for religion, relatively low regard for any approach that would marginalize, privatize, or sideline religion, and approval of accommodation of religion, whether as a constitutional or a legislative matter. Of course we argue over little details, like whether a theory of religious liberty is possible in the first place. And of course there are ongoing doctrinal disagreements, especially on the Establishment Clause side of the ledger. But on the whole there is a strong sense that we are all pulling in more or less the same direction.
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by In an essay, posted on Public Discourse this morning, I weigh in on the immigration law recently enacted in Arizona, putting that problematic law in the context of a quarter century of failure by the federal government to stem the tide of illegal immigration. Recognizing the dignity of every human being and the duty of the state [...]
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by Two words struck me in Elena Kagan’s brief speech this morning: humbled and blessed. Kagan used both words to describe her reaction to her nomination to the Supreme Court. Such words are commonplace on such occasions and may be little more than platitudes, but they both identify important idea. “Blessings” are typically thought to come from God, “from whom all blessings flow” as a popular doxology puts it. Humility, too, is a uniquely Christian virtue, as Thomas Aquinas wrote centuries ago. Humility also plays a surprising role in legal thought, as particularly evidenced by the many tributes to retiring judges who are praised for their humility.
Read the full postWhy We Need a Protestant Justice: A Call for a More Nuanced Approach to Rule of Law
by russellpearce
In 1990, when I resigned as General Counsel to the New York City Commission on Human Rights to join the Fordham Law School faculty, I was the only White member of the of the executive staff. I urged the Commissioner to try to find a qualified White person, if available, to replace me. He rejected that idea, presumably because Whites are the dominant racial group and not in need of any representation in the leadership of a government agency. Today, we face a similar question with regard to whether there should be at least one Protestant Supreme Court Justice. Protestants account for more than half of Americans today and historically have been our dominant religious culture.
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